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A couple weeks ago I went back to Jakarta for work. The flight up turned out to be quite an interesting one. I decided to use some points to upgrade and got to sit in the business section. It was a nice treat to have a seat that reclined in all different directions and to be waited on throughout. But unfortunately I didn't get to choose my neighbour. From the minute I sat down he was saying "ay ay ay" really loudly. He was 78, Egyptian, and just on a different level. When the meals came out he spilled his first glass of red wine all over. I handed him my napkin, and he started praying for me and then made me clink glasses with him over the barrier once he got a refill. Later on, I got up to use the toilet but had to pause when I lifted the lid. There was something odd at the bottom of the bowl, so I got the flight attendants so I didn't make the situation worse. My crazy neighbour dude had just been in there and had fallen in the aisle on the way back to h…

Today we reached a big milestone in the house building journey - the land settled. As of 2 pm today, we became 20% owners of this beautiful block of weeds! All thanks to some fluke timing and a chat while looking at a display home, some texts, and a large pile of money.

It's funny how painless and straight forward buying the land was compared to finalising a house design. We're still working with the custom builder on potential house designs. We got the preliminary design the other day, and it made me feel like we had taken a few steps backwards again. The dream kitchen layout was missing, and we seemed to have gained a laundry room and lost a bedroom. The way this builder prices the house by the square meter means the extra space that doesn't make sense gets quite spendy. So we had a meeting with the salesman and draftsman and sent them back to the drawing board. I'm hoping the next iteration is more in line with what we're looking for, because the last thi…